ARG:See Me Say Me

This page contains spoilers about the Heartbound ARG. If you want to solve the puzzle yourself, avoid reading this article.

As this is the beginning of Phase 2, the first task is to actually find the trailhead. Entering the code does that has been found at the end of Phase 1 does something more than translating the Guardian Glyphs.

Finding the Trailhead

When you type the code into the game, it drops a new file next to your save file, wherever that happens to be. This file can be found at the following locations:

• Windows: %LOCALAPPDATA%\Heartbound\SeeMeSayMe.thor
• Linux: ~/.config/Heartbound/SeeMeSayMe.thor
• Mac: ~/Library/Application Support/com.piratesoftware.heartbound/SeeMeSayMe.thor

File Encoding

SeeMeSayMe.thor won't render with any normal program. It's encoded. Fortunately the encoding is an easy one. The double-equals (==) at the end is a dead-giveaway.

There are many ways to decode such files and one of them is the online Base64 to image converter, in which you will have to paste the file contents and it will decode the file to an image. Make sure you don't have to copy-paste the result. That will almost certainly corrupt the resulting file. Find a place where you can download the resulting file.

Play Rude

Decoded SeeMeSayMe.thor

This puzzle is a reprise of an earlier puzzle Thor wrote: Play Rude

The name is a reference to the Playfair Cipher. However, unlike regular Playfair, which has one or two tableaus, this is a Four-square cipher.

As if that wasn't obscure enough, we don't have a normal cipher text. Instead we have clusters like NNIII. To decode that, we have to look for N in square 2, and I in square 3, and cross-reference to get DI.

Grid reference:

12
34

Which gives us the string: DI AN RF KL SU IE DN EC RE

If rendered vertically, like the Play Rude puzzle suggests:

DI
AN
RF
KL
SU
IE
DN
EC
RE

You`ll get "DARKSIDERINFLUENCE". Since this is Phase 2, and we're starting over, put that right in the URL right after "Heartbound/", and you'll get the Pact page.